Tapie eyes up further ISPT events
Prospective Full Tilt owner to follow September's live tournament in London with a second event in Paris or Monaco.
Laurent Tapie, the prospective owner of Full Tilt Poker, is making plans for the second event of his International Stadiums Poker Tour (ISPT).
As reported by eGaming Review in October, the first event is scheduled to take place at Wembley Stadium in September pending licensing approval. Tapie (pictured) told eGR that he has earmarked Paris and Monaco as potential venues for a second live tournament in 2013.
“Wembley Stadium is already booked, and we just need to get our licence before getting a date for it “ if we can do things quickly we can launch in September this year, or alternatively we can hold the first event in April 2013. We’ll decide which by the end of February,” he explained.
“We chose England because it is one of the top countries for gambling,” he added, confirming that the opening event would have a prizepool of 30m split between the main event and a series of smaller tournaments.
He added that Monaco’s Stade Louis II would suit the tournament structure, which sees 30,000 players competing on electronic pads on the backs of the stadium seats before the top 10% of the field moves onto physical poker tables on the pitch from day 2 of the tournament onwards.
ISPT is headed up by Laurent Tapie in partnership with his former Partouche Interactive colleague Prosper Masquelier, while Tapie’s father Bernard is the third founder of the tour.
Laurent Tapie confirmed that he would be able to use Full Tilt Poker software for the Wembley event if his takeover of the operator is completed, although he also has other software options.
Groupe Bernard Tapie, the consortium behind the FTP takeover bid, has already submitted a licence application for the newly regulating Spanish market and will find out whether it has been successful in late March or early April.
It reached an agreement with Full Tilt over the transfer of assets in December, however question marks still remain over the deal, which is believed to be being held up by the failure of a number of poker players to repay outstanding debts to FTP.